New York City’s Playboy Club is shutting down and turning into a concert venue and steakhouse just over a year after it was opened with great fanfare.
Sources told the New York Post that Manhattan’s Playboy Club at the Cachet Hotel – which had annual membership fees as high as $100,000 – will be shut down just over a year after it was opened.
The venue is expected to be rebranded as performance venue, called Live Nation Theater at Cachet Hotel, with a Merchants Steakhouse located in the space the Playboy Club had been.
New York City’s Playboy Club will shut down and be replaced with a concert venue and steakhouse. The club is pictured here during its September 2018 opening night celebration
The Playboy Club was said to have had plenty of patrons at the weekend, but had difficulty drawing a crowd on weekdays. Playboy Bunnies are seen here at the club in September 2018
The hotel’s owners, Merchants Hospitality, are said to have struck a 10-year deal worth $88million with Live Nation
The sources said that the decision to revamp came as the club’s owners were looking to increase revenue due to the fact that company expense accounts no longer stretched to reimbursing employees for hitting up a location famed for employing scantily-clad women.
Although the Playboy Club, which also had a public bar in addition to being a member-only venue, was said to have been crowded at the weekend, it was said to have had difficulty drawing a crowd on weekdays.
‘It’s a powerful brand and has a huge following but may work better in less sophisticated cities,’ a source told the newspaper. ‘New Yorkers are too cosmopolitan and aren’t going there for serious business dinners.’
Prior to the Playboy Club’s NYC launch, Clark Wolf, a restaurant and food business consultant, had called called the opening ‘ridiculous’ and argued that it ‘tone deaf’ to what people want – according to the Guardian.
‘It’s kind of ridiculous actually,’ Wolf said. ‘People are demanding better conditions and a bunny suit and ears doesn’t seem to be on par with what people are wanting.
‘There is a bitter fight going on right now for middle-aged douchey white men to regain power and control and that is going on at all levels of society.’
The venue’s dining area will be redecorated – ditching the Playboy memorabilia – but the club’s overall aesthetic, including dark wood accents and tufted banquettes and chairs, will be incorporated into the steakhouse’s design.
The Playboy Club will be revamped as a Live Nation concert venue and Merchants Steakhouse. Playboy Bunnies are seen here serving guests in September 2018
Critics had called the Playboy Club’s opening ‘tone deaf.’ Playboy Bunnies are seen at the launch event in September 2018
Before the club opened, it was said that there had been $2.2million of memberships sold – some going for as much as $100,000 – and that 45 per cent of those memberships had gone to women. Playboy Playmates are pictured here in September 2018
A source told the New York Post that the club owners decided to revamp the venue while looking to increase revenue in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Women are seen here demonstrating during the Women’s March in January 2018
Existing Playboy Club Members can either have their membership fees reimbursed or switched over to the new Live Nation Theater, where they’ll get VIP access, as well as other perks including concert tickets and dinners at the steakhouse.
The New York Post had previously reported that $2.2million worth of memberships had already been sold to eager customers as of June 2018.
A source told the newspaper that 45 per cent of memberships sold so far have been to women.
The $100,000 annual membership was said to include access to Playboy’s sleek private jet and 15-nights accommodation at the club. There was also a low-tier, ‘Lounge’ membership available for $5,000 a year.
The new Live Nation Theater at Cachet Hotel is expected to provide music fans with more intimate experiences with artists, including potential meet-and-greets with performers in between shows and higher-priced gigs.
As news broke about the Playboy Club’s rebranding, The Real Deal reported that Playboy Enterprises had actually ended its licensing deal with the Merchants’ affiliate that was operating the club a week prior to the reveal of the Live Nation deal.
Sources told The Real Deal that the Playboy brand hadn’t been happy about how the club had been operating since its September 2018 opening and cited a breach of contract when terminating the licensing deal.
In April 2019, the New York Post reported that the Playboy Club fired half their Bunnies and slashed their pay over a lack of waitressing skills, according to an insider.
Despite how well they looked in their black corsets and bunny ears, the Playboy Bunnies were said to have been fired over their inability to waitress, leading to waiters being hired to pick up the slack.
There are still some women dressed up as glamorous rabbits, but their pay has been cut from $40 to $25 an hour and their job descriptions updated, the Post reported.
‘They have been stripped of their duty to wait on tables because they cannot do service,’ a source told the paper, adding, ‘Bunnies are now allowed only to run drinks.’
Although Merchant Hospitality didn’t respond to the Real Deal’s requests for comment about losing its licensing deal, an executive did tell the site that a third-party vendor had been managing the Playboy Club on the company’s behalf.
The original Playboy Club opened in 1968 and provided employees – including Debbie Harry and Lauren Hutton – with a manual on how to behave.
The rules for Bunnies included not dating members or other employees, keeping one’s tail neatly attached and not eating or drinking in front of members.
The original Playboy Club was opened in Chicago in 1960 as part of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine brand, growing to a global chain of 30 clubs.
The clubs’ Bunnies all wore the iconic skimpy satin costumes, accompanied by bunny ears and fluffy cotton tail, along with a bow tie and wrist cuffs.
Over the years, the clubs have been shuttered, one by one, with the New York and Los Angeles clubs closing in 1986 and the final club closing in 1991.
In 2006, Playboy Enterprises revived the Playboy Club brand at Las Vegas’ Sands Casino, then launched various outposts in Asia and a casino in London.
Since then, all but a Playboy Club bar in Mumbai and the London casino have closed down.
The Playboy Club’s transformation into the Live Nation Theater at Cachet Hotel could take place as early as December.